Rendering Translucent Materials (2001)

Rendering Translucent Materials (2001)

 

First subsurface scattering

Video

Trivia:

1) Subsurface scattering (or SSS), also known as subsurface light transport (SSLT), is a mechanism of light transport in which light penetrates the surface of a translucent object, is scattered by interacting with the material, and exits the surface at a different point. The light will generally penetrate the surface and be reflected a number of times at irregular angles inside the material, before passing back out of the material at an angle other than the angle it would have if it had been reflected directly off the surface. Subsurface scattering is important in 3D computer graphics, being necessary for the realistic rendering of materials such as marble, skin, leaves, wax and milk.

2) Directed by Henrik Wann Jensen.

3) Presented on Siggraph.

4) First time this was used in a movie in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) - realistic translucent materials was developed for the creation of Gollum. Subsurface scattering, allowed the 3D-artists at Weta Digital, to simulate light casting into objects and bouncing around underneath the surface and casted back out again. This has been used  to create realistic skin, it gave more translucency to the skin and made the characters seems more alive.